The present disclosure relates to the control of engines, and more particularly to methods for reducing the fuel consumption of engines, and in particular compression ignition engines.
Torque multiplication may be used in torque converters, such as those used in automatic gear boxes to increase the acceleration in performance vehicles by altering gear ratios. Such techniques generally sacrifice fuel economy to provide better acceleration. The present disclosure is concerned with torque control to increase fuel efficiency.
On all 4 stroke engines, every other stroke is a power stroke where fuel is burned. This burning of fuel produces CO2 and NOx emissions in dependence upon the rate at which fuel is burned. This rate in turn depends on the engine speed—as an engine performs a greater number of more revolutions per minute it also tends to produce emissions at a greater rate.
It has therefore traditionally been believed that high performance vehicles are less fuel efficient and produce more unwanted emissions than other types of vehicles.